Volunteers Guide City's Future

Opinion - My WORD

February 6, 2002|By Teresita Meredith

I can no longer keep quiet about the way not-for-profit groups have been verbally and ignorantly attacked. Volunteers from these groups have been called "selfish and greedy." Now another letter that appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on Jan. 23 called them "civic hustlers."

These organizations may not be part of government or headed by elected leaders, but I guarantee you all their leaders and members are hard-working, civic-minded taxpayers whose only goal is to give their unselfish contributions for the betterment of the community.

I moved to DeBary in 1990, not because it was a quiet little town that I expected to stay the same all my life. What I saw was its potential to remain a lovely and improved place where you can enjoy the atmosphere of a small-town setting. After I became a resident, I decided to be a part of my community's progress by doing volunteer work as soon as opportunity arose.

I volunteered to work in the former library on Azalea Drive, and I am now part of the volunteer group in the new library at Charles R. Beall Boulevard. If you have not stepped into both the old and the new DeBary Library, you wouldn't know the difference, and that is a result of progress. There are only six hired staff members in the library. I wonder if the public knows that there are about 34 library volunteers who unselfishly give of their time to help the staff so the public may be better served. Fortunately, these volunteers do not find the necessity of asking the city for assistance in the performance of their work.

The DeBary Art League has never asked the city for any help with its operating expenses. Since the day it was organized, we have supported ourselves. I know, because I am a charter member who has served as an officer of this group for the past four years. I work for the Art League an average of five hours a day, five days a week because of the "volunteer" work we do for the community.

In the past, the city has helped volunteer groups with in-kind services for the protection and comfort of those who attend such events as the Haunted Hike at Gateway Park. The first time DeBary Art League requested financial assistance to help with any project or event for the community was in connection with Youth Celebration of Arts, which will be March 9. When the city let it be known that it would not help, it was necessary for the Art League to seek help somewhere else, and move the event from a city park to a county park.

I don't think it is unreasonable for a small portion of my tax money to be used to bring events such as this to my community, and I am sure there are others who feel the same way. However, it seems it is too difficult a task for our elected officials to determine what is a valuable contribution to the community and what isn't. How is it that the county can recognize the benefit of such an event but the city does not?

Do those people who have criticized volunteers realize that they are killing the incentive and enthusiasm of the civic-minded people who belong to the not-for-profit organizations? Who then will help make DeBary a much better place to live by working toward its progress? Why would volunteers like me continue to try and work hard for the community only to be insulted by people who probably have not done anything for free? What have these people done to better their community?

People who moved here thinking that this town will remain the same forever are deceiving themselves because, like it or not, DeBary is on its way to becoming a progressive little city.